It was quickly adopted by blacks and abolitionists after the dramatic insurrection at Harper’s Ferry in 1859, and the resulting trial and execution of its leader, John Brown.

John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave,John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave,John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave,His soul is marching on!

In 1861, social activist and Christian, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe witnessed a skirmish between Union and Confederate troops while visiting a Union camp near Washington DC. These are her words following the encounter:

“I awoke in the grey of the morning, and as I lay waiting for dawn, the long lines of the desired poem began to entwine themselves in my mind, and I said to myself, “I must get up and write these verses, lest I fall asleep and forget them!” So I sprang out of bed and in the dimness found an old stump of a pen, which I remembered using the day before. I scrawled the verses almost without looking at the paper.”

It was published in the Atlantic Monthly and sung at the funerals of Winston Churchill, Senator Robert Kennedy, and Presidents Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon. It has become one of the most beloved hymns of America.

The Battle Hymn of the Republic – Lyrics by Julia Ward Howe

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword;
His truth is marching on.

I have seen Him in the watch fires of a hundred circling camps
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps;
His day is marching on.

I have read a fiery Gospel writ in burnished rows of steel;
“As ye deal with My contemners, so with you My grace shall deal”;
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with His heel,
Since God is marching on.

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat;
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet;
Our God is marching on.

He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave,
He is wisdom to the mighty, He is honor to the brave;
So the world shall be His footstool, and the soul of wrong His slave,
Our God is marching on.

We sang it in church Sunday and for some reason the song leader, who emigrated here from Ukraine when he was a child, left out the fifth verse. I can forgive him, as English is his second language. I would not understand if an American-born citizen did that. It’s the pivotal verse. The fact that pragmatists and not Christians have changed the word “die” to live” in the third line is far less forgivable. But I’m just a fussy old lady. What do I know? I know this: I will die to save this country if it comes to that. Am I being too melodramatic? In view of the events of the past eighteen months, I don’t think so.